Jacob Fowler made 30 saves for his fourth NHL start for his first shutout and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-0 on Saturday night to open a home-and-home set.
The teams will meet again Sunday night in Pittsburgh.
Josh Anderson scored twice, the second into an empty net, and Owen Beck had his first NHL goal for Montreal. Juraj Slafkovsky also scored to help Montreal improve to 19-12-4 with its second straight victory.
The Penguins dropped their eighth straight to fall to 14-11-9.
Stuart Skinner stopped 17 shots in his second start for Pittsburgh. He allowed five goals in a 6-4 loss to Edmonton in his Pittsburgh debut Tuesday night after being acquired from Edmonton.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby remained at 1,722 career points, one shy of idol and mentor Mario Lemieux for the franchise lead. Pittsburgh was shut out for the second consecutive game, also falling 4-0 to Ottawa on Thursday night.
Slafkovsky, after keeping the play alive with a stick-check, ripped a shot into the top corner off a pass from Cole Caufield on the power play to open the scoring with 3:19 left in the first period.
Beck doubled the lead with 1:11 remaining in the period after blowing by a falling Parker Wotherspoon and firing a shot over Skinner’s left shoulder.
Midway through the second period, Anderson scored on a short-handed goal on a breakaway.
